Leonardo Maria Del Vecchio attends the amfAR Gala Venice 2023 hosted by Mastercard and Red Sea International Film Festival on September 3, 2023 in Venice, Italy.
Christy Sparrow | Getty Images Entertainment | Getty Images
A version of this article first appeared in CNBC’s Inside Wealth newsletter by Robert Frank, a weekly guide for high-net-worth investors and consumers. Sign up to receive future editions directly to your inbox.
Wall Street advisors kept busy in December — from warner bros discovery start a war on trump media A $6 billion merger with a nuclear fusion company. But the ultra-wealthy private investment firm was in no hurry to close the deal before the end of the year.
Family offices made 35 direct investments in companies in December, down about 62% on an annual basis, according to data provided exclusively to CNBC by private wealth platform Fintrx. The results capped a weak year for family office deals as companies scaled back direct bets in light of tariff uncertainty and geopolitical disputes.
Still, Millennial and Gen X heirs continue to rise to fame through their family offices.
Motier Ventures, one of the most active family offices, was founded by Guillaume Houzet, 44, the fifth-generation heir of the French department store chain Galeries Lafayette, according to Fintrx data. The French company, known for its tech-heavy portfolio, participated in blood testing startup Lucis’ 7.2 million euro ($8.5 million) seed round in December.
The next generation of heirs often invests outside of the industry in which they built their family fortune. Last month, billionaire optician Leonardo Maria Del Vecchio bought a 30% stake in Italy’s right-wing news outlet Il Giornale through the newly created media arm of his family office, LMDV Capital. Del Vecchio, whose late father founded Luxottica, said in an interview with an Italian news outlet that he did not expect big profits and was investing out of a sense of civic responsibility.
“My wish is to build an information hub for Italy, free from political colours, left and right, for the sake of our children and the future of Italy,” the 30-year-old told Reconomia, according to a translation by CNBC. “Publishing needs a new push to reconnect with young people looking for information but in the wrong place. I want these young people to get back to flipping through the pages of a paper newspaper or magazine and getting their hands dirty with ink.”
The ultra-wealthy have traditionally used philanthropy as a way to engage the next generation, and it remains a popular method. But more families are turning to direct investing, often with an emphasis on sustainability, to involve heirs, said Scott Saslow, a family office consultant and principal.
“Those families found interesting ways to attract the next generation by saying, ‘Hey, this isn’t about having a nice house or driving a nice car. This is about can we do something pretty impactful in the world from this privileged place with this capital?'” he said.
Just under a third of family offices said they expected the next generation of family members to be directly involved in investing, and 39% said they expected the next generation to help manage investments, according to UBS’s latest Family Office Survey.
—CNBC’s Gaelle Legrand contributed to this report.
